The anti-Santelli
Advocating for fringe political causes in the most despicable of segments, the “Call of the Wild” is not journalism…it’s political bullshit! They should be fired and thrown in prison for good measure!
Here’s an Economist story that links to Krugman’s spot-on accusation that these are yet more astroturf bullshit!
“And did we mention the idiotic Santelli episode? In terms of newsroom standards, it’s like Fox News run amok over at CNBC.”
That’s the conclusion to a very accurate, well sourced and blistering critique of CNBC over at Media Matters’ new financial site. They are going to be busy if they want to catalogue all of the lies and politicking on that network. Cramer’s not really the problem. He’s outrageous by nature and no one really takes him seriously. The main problem is the group of “journalists” who ‘play one on TV’ while in actuality serving as politically-rightward-tilting commentators. It’s a disgrace to financial journalists everywhere.
In his absence, Rick Santelli has been boning up on the GOP talking points about “sanctity of contracts” with the AIG bonuses. It’s a ridiculous argument because, although contracts are important, those contracts were essentially reopened when the bhfkaAIG (black hole formerly known as AIG) failed and was seized by the government, whatever “equity” position they papered over the transaction with. The government seized AIG after it became clear it would fail in a disorderly fashion if the government didn’t step in.
Saw him at the opening bell this morning, apparently he was “on vacation”. He stayed on his beat, where I am fine with him being. It’s the extracurricular ranting like Larry Kudlow about “losers” that I have no tolerance for.
The conclusion of the Daily Show’s week of war on CNBC concludes with Jim Cramer appearing on the show. He appeared on the Colbert Report last week. The week of critical, mocking commentary on the network has led to more than a few lame rebuttals on the channel and represents a new area of anger boiling over following the financial crisis that began in August 2007. CNBC, the most watched channel in the financial television industry (far outstripping Bloomberg TV and Fox Business Network) is receiving the criticism it deserves and which has been largely absent before because, frankly, no one cared enough to watch it with a critical eye towards its kid gloves treatment of the financial industry.
I’m not going to defend Jim Cramer against the (justified) complaints made by Jon Stewart, but I will give him credit for being the only member of CNBC with the cojones to face the anger head on and be the verbal punching bag on behalf of the network. It, frankly, makes Rick Santelli look like a “loser” and a coward that he accepted Stewart’s invitation to appear on the show and then “bailed out”. I think he is in hiding because I have not seen him appear on CNBC since the opening salvo of the Daily Show’s war on CNBC.
I have CNBC on all day for my job and I haven’t seen Santelli on for a while. Anyone know if he got canned/went on vacation/took a sabbatical/checked into rehab? Speculation, rumors, made up stories welcome?
An article by a reporter from Huffington Post describes the growth in GOP efforts to outsource opposition to President Obama’s policies to the right wing commentators at CNBC including Larry Kudlow and Rick Santelli.
“To elevate Kudlow to attack-dog status is a curious choice by the RNC, not least because corporate tax havens — in which companies open P.O. boxes in order to pay much lower tax rates — are incredibly unpopular in this current climate. [...] Obama, in short, is trusted far more than Wall Street. As such, observers say, the RNC is taking a risk by positioning Kudlow and others as the spokespeople against Obama’s economic plans.
“There is kind of a gamble they are taking,” said Pollster.com’s Mark Blumenthal. “They want to be on the side of every day Americans worrying about their 401k and IRAs but they don’t want to go too far and be on the side of the greed that Americans are reacting against… If the spokespeople for the RNC are seen to be spokespeople for the bank executives and the mortgage lenders, then they could be in trouble.”
A CNBC story by John Harwood shows strong support for Obama and the policies it has planned but the last paragraph tries to use a poll’s poor wording to support the Santelli cry against “losers”. The poll asked people whether they favored homeowner assistance described as “financial assistance”, which to me sounds like cash handouts. Even still, a majority supported it, although John Harwood focuses on the 46% who oppose it. It is easy to construct a straw horse of “financial assistance” to troubled homeowners. The homeowner plan would use mortgage cramdowns and interest rate reductions to reduce the mortgage burden on near-foreclosure properties to a manageable amount (less than 38% of income) to stave off further foreclosures where people are still paying on time, but have large payments (perhaps from a teaser rate that was only cursorily disclosed.
The text from the article is:
“A third comes in differing assessments of the administration’s housing plan. Though a majority expresses support, when that plan is described as “financial assistance” to homeowners in trouble, a 48 percent plurality calls that assistance unfair to others.”
The way the question is worded (“financial assistance”) makes it seem like it is unfair to others. It is another example of CNBC bending over backwards to try and support the astroturf revolution started by Santelli.
The Managing Editor of CNBC.com says that “Santelli going off on air is not unusual. His passion often flares up … as he himself notes in a recent column.” While he is often more expressive than some other people on CNBC, he usually confines this expressiveness to the bond market and other financial market issues. The defense of Santelli in this case tells the astro-turf wing-nuts, “Please, let us help you be legitimized as a ‘grassroots’ movement”. It is not good for the network’s credibility as a NEWS CHANNEL.
